February 1, 1898.] 



KNOWLEDGE, 



oL 



which looks like a flake of snow against the black mass. 

 Beyond this flock there are a number of large dark objects 

 moving about. By their shape and the manner in which 

 they feed you can tell they are curlew, although they are 

 too far off for you to see their long curved bills. 



Five fair-sized birds have risen from the mud and come 

 flying towards you. At flrst you cannot make them out, 

 but as they come nearer their long and slightly upturned 

 bills and light brown plumage can be seen, and you put 

 them down as godwit. Now, if you are on the east coast 

 it is not every day you will see a godwit in the winter, so 

 you are particularly anxious to get one of these birds. As 

 ill luck will have it they seem to be passing right out of 

 range, so you whistle " whee-whaup-whaup, whee-whaup- 

 whaup." They have heard it and round they come. You 

 keep on whistling and crouch low, and the silly birds come 

 right over your head. Bang ! bang ! \'ou have got one but 

 missed the other, and you consider yourself lucky that 

 they answered to the call. 



Mr. R. B. Lodge, who is well known as a very successful 

 bird photographer, has very kindly allowed me to here re- 

 produce a photograph of a living godwit. When the 

 unapproachable nature of shore birds (on account of their 

 shyness and the want of cover) is taken into consideration, 

 this photograph may be regarded as a triumph of skill and 

 patience. I might here advise j\Ir. Lodge to try photo- 

 graphing birds from a hole in the mudflats. I feel sure it 

 would prove a success. 



After retrieving the godwit, and when you are once again 

 settled down, you find that the tide has been slowly but 

 surely creeping up, and as it comes so it drives in the birds 

 with it. There are usually dunlin, grey plover, ringed 

 plover, and a few other birds (according to the time of 

 year), fairly near the shore even when the tide is right out ; 

 but the big flocks of knot, the flocks of duck and geese, 

 the parties of curlew and others, generally feed right at 

 the edge of the water. When the tide was far out, and 

 there were a number of square miles of uncovered mud, it 

 was just a chance if a flock, or a single bird even, came 

 within the limited range of your gun ; but now, with the 

 tide well up, the feeding grounds circumscribed, and the 

 flocks on the move, you will have the best chances of the 

 day. 



Lucky indeed is the man who, as he crouches in his 

 hole, hears a deafening roar and rush of wings, and looks 

 up to find one of those vast flocks of knot sweeping along, 

 forty yards above his head. It is an impressive sound and 

 a thrilling sight, and neither will be forgotten. 



If the hidden gunner is not overpowered by the spectacle, 

 and has the presence of mind to tire, he will pick up a 

 score or two of birds than which none are better eatint,'; 

 but the sight and sound alone will be a rich reward for 

 many hours of cold and dreary waiting. 



It is, indeed, rire to be so close to one of these enormous 

 flocks on the wing, but there are other good things that 

 will come to the man who perseveres, even in sitting Ln a 

 hole on the mudflats. 



The curlew — one of the wariest of birds — may be 

 watched at close quarters and brought to bag. 



I well remember one winter's day. I had been watching 

 and waiting without success for four hours in a hole 

 which had taken some labour to dig, as more than one 

 blistered finger testified. The tide was rapidly approaching 

 and all chances of sport would soon be over for the day, when 

 eighteen curlews suddenly appeared and settled down within 

 two hundred yards of me. They commenced feeding, and 

 to my disgust I soon saw that they were slowly walking 

 further and further away. As a last resource I began to 

 whistle softly " courlieu cur-cur-courlieu." They heard 



me and stopped feeding. I whistled louder and louder. 

 They did not seem quite satisfied, but nevertheless they 

 turned and began to slowly walk towards me, feeding as 

 they came. I continued to whistle, and as they got nearer 

 I could see them plainly and watch their every action : 

 the leisurely way they fed — walking along in a stately 

 fashion, and every now and again looking round or 

 stepping aside to probe their long curved beaks up to the 

 very base in the soft mud. Their manner struck me as a 

 great contrast to that of the dunlin, with his dumpy little 

 body, his quick run and eager probing here, there, and 

 everywhere. But I soon began to wish the curlew would 

 walk a little faster. I was becoming tired of whistling, and 

 the tide was getting very near and would soon flood me 

 out. At last one of the curlew was well within range and 

 several more were fairly near. The water began to trickle 

 into the hole, so I jumped up and made sure of the bird 

 nearest to me, but missed with the second barrel. Had I 

 been an older hand I should have done as a friend of mine 

 once did. There was a flock of Brent geese walking 

 towards him. He waited patiently until one of the birds 

 actually came to the edge of the hole, and was naturally 

 surprised to see a man there. The man jumped up and 

 shot a goose a little distance off, and then bowled over the 

 one which had been so near to him, and had by that time 

 flown away about forty yards. 



One has to be careful when walking off the mudflats at 

 night. The ridges of mud are slippery and deceptive. I 

 once fell full length into two feet of water, and drove my 

 gun into the mud up to the breech. A friend of mine 

 once stepped into an old hole which was full of water. 

 Luckily, he went in feet first. Had it been head first, it 

 is unlikely that he would have got out again. 



A carefully dug hole will last two or three days before 

 it either falls in or becomes silted up. Of course it fills 

 with water and has to be baled out before it can be 

 occupied again, and however dry it is baled it is never so 

 comfortable as a freshly dug one. 



In conclusion, let me recommend ornithologists to make 

 a trial of " holeing in the clays." A close acquaintance 

 will be made with a number of very wild birds, and many 

 pleasant hours will be spent studying their ways. More- 

 over, there is certain to be some sport, and there may be 

 such a chance as comes to the orinary man but once in 

 a lifetime. 



♦ 



LIQUID FLUORINE. 



By C. F. TowxsENii, y.c.s. 



THE alchemists of the middle ages believed that 

 somewhere in the universe was to be found an 

 universal solvent, which would dissolve the most 

 refractory substances as readily as water dissolves 

 sugar. They named their solvent liquor alkahest, 

 and what time they could spare from the search after the 

 elixir of life and the philosopher's stone was spent in the 

 endeavour to obtain it. Science has yet to prove, by the 

 way, that there was not more method in the madness of 

 the alchemists than is generally supposed, for in the 

 remarkable substance, fluorine, chemists possess a material 

 that approximates very closely to an universal solvent. 

 Its chemical energy is so fierce that, except gold and 

 platinum, nothing can resist it ; and even gold and platinum 

 succumb to fluorine in time. The mere contact of most 

 substances with fluorine is sufficient to cause, not mere 

 solution, but light, flame, and fierce detonations. Dull, 

 inert flint takes fire when exposed to fluorine vapour and 

 becomes a brilliant incandescent mass. Lampblack bursts 



